Survivor
by TheKiller1227
Summary: I nod, numb. It's been forever since I have even had a conversation with Gale. I look down at Ivory, who is quietly walking beside me. I hold her small hand with my large, compared to hers, hand. I smile and look back at President Coin. Madge in District 13. Kind of AU.


**Survivor**

**A/N: So, I just saw Mockingjay, and there were a lot of moments in there where I could imagine Madge in 13. So, here it is. This may be a one-shot; I may get reviews asking for it to be continued. I am just experimenting with this kind of story, so it may not be as good. I don't know, it is entirely up to you. Just let me know what you think, so here it is:**

**Madge**

We had been obtained with three hovercrafts from District 13. We knew that there was already a group of survivors from 12, but there were some of us who survived.

We varied in age. The youngest, Astrid, was only about 7 months old. I knew her parents, they lived in town and sometimes I would babysit her for them when they would want to go out. The oldest, a crippled old man named Harold, was 56. He was close to dying so when I would pass out our already scarce rations, he would turn his hand and point one of the younger ones. He was a kind man, from the seam, who lost his ability to walk from a mine explosion. He had no family left, his wife died during the birth of their second son, who also didn't survive. Harold died a couple of days before they found us.

We became close. When the war started, we had about 20 of us that lived in the rumbles of the forgotten district. Then the numbers dwindled down. Then it was 19, 18, most of them died from either starvation or infection. Then the hovercrafts came down to the ruble, looking for more survivors I think. They picked us up and immediately we were all taken to their hospital.

** X**

I woke up with just minimal damages. I also had a visitor, District 13's president, Alma Coin. She had brought one of the other survivors, Ivory, with her. Ivory had lost both of her parents in the bombing. She was an only child to them, so she was kind of lost and scared when we were down there. Ivory was only 2 when the bombing happened; I kind of adopted her as my own. When I asked what she was doing there, she said that she was there to ask me about our survival in 12.

"How did you do it?" she asked, helping Ivory onto the bed. She immediately cuddled into my side and I wrapped my arm around her.

"We just needed a leader. I knew that not everyone would survive, I'm actually very surprised that Astrid survived as long as she did. Being so young, there wasn't a lot for her to eat," I told her. "Where is Astrid? I didn't get to see her until we got off the hovercraft and everyone was scurried off. Thank you, by the way; I just realized that I never thanked you."

"If anything I should be thanking you," she said. She sat down across from me, in the chair, with her hands intertwined in her lap. "I hate to bring the rebellion into this, but because of you, we can tell the Capitol that no force can break the bond of a district."

"Okay, thank you, I suppose," I smile. Coin stood, wiping her hands on her gray jump suit.

"Would you like to see Astrid?" she asks me.

"Can I?" I had asked eagerly.

"If you would like," she smiles. "I can get you out, but not for long, they want to keep you for an IV. Did you get any nutrition while you were still 12?"

"There wasn't enough for everyone to have a good serving, so I wouldn't eat anything for a couple of days," I shrugged.

It was true, we had raided the Victor's old homes, and they never bombed those houses. So sometimes we would stay there for comfort. We used the food that was just going to parish anyway and the food that was going to rot or something like that. It's what kept most of us alive for a while longer than we thought it would. Peeta's house was used for a small shelter. We also raided his wardrobe, which wasn't very full; though I wasn't really surprised. Peeta only used his house for when he needed to get away from his mother. It helped. We also used them for showers.

"Well, I can only let you see her for a little bit, it's going to be best that you have enough strength to be a solider in our army," she says, leading us down the corridor. At first when I heard the news, I didn't like the news, but then I thought about it. The Capitol has taken everything from me. My home, my family, everything. Then I thought about Ivory.

"I can't leave Ivory," I told her while we walked down the hall. She kept her head forward, a small frown on her aging face.

"Well, I can only say that I am sorry, but we need you," she says. I think that she sees how confused that I get because she continues to explain. "Katniss Everdeen has been cleared from being mentally insane, but she still has memories from when she was in the Games. We need to have as many people as she trusts to be with her on missions in case she loses control. You will be working alongside Gale Hawthorne. Do you know him?"

I nod, numb. It's been forever since I have even had a conversation with Gale. I look down at Ivory, who is quietly walking beside me. I hold her small hand with my large, compared to hers, hand. I smile and look back at President Coin. "Can you promise me that Ivory will be safe while I'm gone?"

"I can, we have an excellent program for children. I like to pride myself on it. Trust me, your daughter is completely safe," she smiles.

"Oh, no… she's not mine…" I say.

"Oh, I'm sorry for the confusion," she apologizes, and then turns to me. "Astrid is right in there. I will have a medic come in to inform you of everything."

** X**

When I walk into the baby nursery, crying filling the whole room, and immediately a small baby in the first cart next to the door. I sigh, my heart fluttering in my chest when I see her hooked up to a bunch of wires.

"Madge?" I turn around to see a very familiar face, Mrs. Everdeen. I sigh, letting go of Ivory's hand and rushing towards her. She smiles and wraps her arms around. "We thought you were dead."

"Surprise," I joke, letting out an airy laugh. Her laugh rumbles through me as we pull away. She looks behind me with one eyebrow raised. "Oh, Mrs. Everdeen, this is Ivory. She was in the group of survivors with us."

"Hi, sweetie," she smiles, walking towards us. I look towards Astrid in anticipation of the news.

"So, what happened to her?" I ask, resting my hand onto the small ones tummy. She kind of gurgles a little bit and grabs at my hand, causing a small grin to form on my face.

"Is she yours?" Mrs. Everdeen asks me, walking to the other side of the hospital bed for her.

I shake my head quickly, "Both her parents were killed in the bombings and I found her a little woven basket. So, I carried it with me until the bombing stopped, and ever since then, she's just been with me."

"Okay, well she is in pretty okay health. We have to keep her on an IV. That's not anyone's fault though, she is still very young, and there wasn't anything that you could do about it. She also has a small infection," I sigh, "but we got to you guys in time, so we have that controlled. She has some very minor burns, but other than that, she should perfectly healthy in the next few weeks or so, depending on how well her body responds to all the treatments we have to give her."

I nod, admiring the baby's coal black hair when I feel a small tug on my gown. I look down at Ivory. She raises her arms high above her head, telling me that she wants to be picked up, not verbally though. Ivory has refused to talk ever since we got rescued. I kneel down and grab her around the waist. When I stand though, I start to feel nauseous. Mrs. Everdeen must notice, because she starts to ask me if I'm alright. I nod her off, but after a while I am unable to hear her because I am falling to the ground.

...

I woke up to the sound of two voices conversing. I slowly open my eyes to see that Ivory has taken her spot against my side and she is sleeping, softly snoring as she does. I smile, rubbing her arm a bit. I then slowly turn my head to see a doctor and President Coin conversing in the front doorway. Coin must notice the sudden movement because she looks over the doctor's shoulder and we meet eyes.

"Oh, thank god!" she says, walking over to my bed, to the edge. "Madge, dear how are you feeling?"

"I feel better now," I answer, weakly. "What happened?"

Coin dismisses the doctor before turning back to me. "You were very dehydrated and had a very low energy level; we had to bring you into intensive care. You have been asleep for only a couple of hours, but you are going to have stay in here with the IV for a couple of days."

"We were only down there for a couple of weeks. I don't understand why I have to be on the IV for more than a couple of hours," I mumble staring at the needle in the vein of my hand.

"Madge, because you have been built so small, your body didn't respond well to not having food for more than a couple of days. The body can't survive without water for more than a week, you had to water for two weeks. You just need to relax for a little bit," the president smiles, standing from the bed.  
>"When you are fully stable, you will start your training for team Mockingjay. Get well soon, we would love to have you on your team."<p>

** X**

I found it absurd that Coin had ordered someone to watch me while I had been given my meals. It stopped me from making sure that Ivory had enough to eat. It was weird, it was unnatural, it was revolting.

My recovery, however, took only about three days, surprisingly. I had only been able to see Astrid and Ivory a couple of times, which was kind of enough, but it still wasn't okay. I loved them like they were my own, but that was the problem, they weren't mine; that was the problem. They had been put into the foster care system, ready to be put in the custody of someone. That made me furious. I thought about storming into Coin's office, but I had to settle for asking her calmly when she visited me in the hospital once again.

"Ms. Undersee, you said it yourself, you had to take care of them. However, we need to be in this war with us. With your grudge against the Capitol, you can do so much to help us win this fight," she tells me.

"Can I at least see them when I'm not fighting?" Coin thinks for a moment.

"I will think about it."

** X**

The next day (I was released the night that I talked to Coin) I was sent in for training. They started me with knives and when they saw that I had a "good eye", however I could not throw a knife to save my life (and in this case it kind of had to) they tried me on a sniper. I caught on pretty quickly. Point. Shoot. Point. Shoot. Over and over again. Beetee had developed a gun that was specific to my size. It could shoot up to 5, 000 yards came equipped with a small knife in a small compartment.

"You shouldn't run out of ammo, but just in case," he smiled, putting the knife in the compartment.

I had meant most of the people of the "Star Squad", but I still hadn't met them all. Coin told me that there were about 10 of us. I met the camera crew the first week or so of my training when they came in to film the training. Finally, I met the rest of the team in training and some during meals.

Then I saw _him. _Gale Hawthorne. It wasn't a bad thing. The bad thing was that he was with Katniss when I saw him. We caught each other's eyes and his open wide. I stopped with my whole training and we keep eye contact until Katniss sees me. I break the eye contact and turn to her. She runs to me, talking about how it's so good to see me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I smile and hug her back.

"What are you doing here? They told me that you were dead," she says when she pulls away from the hug. I shake my head and shrug. Katniss laughs and then pulls me back for a hug. I meet Gale's eyes and give him a small smile. He smiles a little, too . I remember the moments that we had. I know that I had just been a little replacement for when Katniss and Peeta were in the games for the first time.

"Happy to see you, Undersee," he says when I am let go. I smile at him and turn back to Katniss who is eyeing my station.

"Is that all you?" she asks, pointing to the bullet sheet. All the shots that I have taken have hit the center of the sheet. I nod sheepishly and pick at the gun that I have laid on the table. "Where was that eye when I took you to the woods?"

"I don't know." I shrug, picking up the game and taking the safety off. I stand in the position and start to fire off the bullets until I am out of rounds.

"Dang, Undersee," I hear. Turning around I see Gale with his arms crossed around his chest.

"What surprised that the princess can actually shoot a gun?" I ask, making a small joke. Gale's smile wipes off his face.

"Yeah, actually," he nods. I laughed and we were told to get back to training.

** X**

Gale and I had meals together. Katniss was there, too, but sometimes she had to go and have the meals with the Mockingjay leaders. So, that gave Gale and I time to talk. I remember all the times that we would be talking and it would just feel like we were back in District 12, in the meadow when he would take me to pick Strawberries.

Sometimes, during reflection we would go to either one of our compartments, just to spend some time together. We had fallen back into our old routine. He would cuddle into my side and I would play with the buttons on his shirt. Sometimes, I would have the courage to unbutton some and press my hand against his chest, but by that time, reflections were over and we had to get back to reality.

Then, the accident happened. It was during one of our missions. We had been set to District 2 fir some footage of Katniss as the Mockingjay. I had been fighting one citizen, who had a gun _and _a knife, and someone had come up to my back and cut off the straps of my armor. The man, no older than 21, took his knife and stabbed me into the stomach.

I woke up in the hospital with Gale and Ivory sitting on my bed, just kind of staring at me.

"Miss Madge," she gasped. I could barely recognize her. She had been fed well for a couple of months now, so she was no longer skinny, but she was not huge either like some of the Capitol people she has seen. Ivory wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes.

"Ivory," Gale says softly, places his large on her back. "Remember what the doctor said."

"Sorry," she says, releasing me from her hold, but laying down on top of me. I looked at my leg and see a large cast around it.

"Doctor says that it's gonna heal, but you've been put on bed rest," he tells me, not getting up from his spot on the hospital bed. I still don't talk, just watch as he plays with the hem of the rough blanket.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Someone got a gun, and they shot you in the knee cap. We got you back just in time, any later and they said that you would have lost your leg," he says. Gale finally stands from the bed and turns to me, meeting my eyes. "You are not going to be on the Mockingjay team anymore; President Coin's orders… and mine."

For a minute I feel a bit of joy, but then I feel slightly mad, at Gale, at Coin, at everyone who thought that I couldn't handle it. I shake my head.

"No," I tell him firmly. He tries to speak, but I stop him: "I'm not the girl that you thought that I was back in District 12. I'm not going to stop."

"Undersee-"

"No, don't Undersee me. As soon as I'm done with this stupid cast, I'm fighting with you guys," I tell him forcefully. He smirks and pats me on my hand.

"I'll go let Coin know."

** X**

**5 years later**

Time in war goes by. When we got into the Capitol, it was like the world had stopped. Now, it feels like the war didn't even happen. I continued to fight after my leg healed. A lot happened. Katniss went rouge and shot coin instead of Snow. Now she and Peeta reside back in 12. When the war ended, however, I got custody of Ivory and Astrid, both now a year older than when the rebellion started.

Gale and I now reside in 2, he's a general and I stay at home with the kids. We got married after about 2 years of dating. We all have nightmares. It's a pretty normal occurrence in the Hawthorne household for one of us to have at least one nightmare a night.

It's not as depressing as it could be, we're happy. Me and Gale plan on having our own, not just the two that we adopted. With all that we have been through, I can very proudly say that; I am a Survivor.

** X**

**10 years later**

Gale and I were married for about 3 years before we had our first born child. It was a boy, Andrew Thomas Hawthorne. He was named after both of our fathers. He was one of the longest babies' in the hospital that day. I know for a fact that he will take after Gale's looks.

Our second child was born about 1 year after Andrew. Her name is Rose Hazelle, she was only about 5 pounds and was only 19 inches long, she was considered to be the smallest baby in the hospital that day. She had to stay in the hospital a little longer than Andrew did, but she got through it all, turned out she was just lactose and tolerant.

I had about 3 miscarriages in between Rose and Boone. That really messed me up. I developed a small case of depression when I was only 29 and overcame it when I was 31 years old.

** X**

**15 years later**

"Are you ready yet?" Gale asked me while he stood in the doorway of our room. I rolled my eyes and continued to brush Adrianna's brown, curly hair. She is the youngest of the kids and the only one that took after both me and Gale. "How long does it take to brush her hair?"

"She has a lot of hair," I argue. He scoffs and runs a hand down his face.

"If we don't leave now we will be late," he tells me.

I laugh, "That's a dramatization."

"Madge, all that we are doing is driving. That is literally the only thing that we will be doing for the next 8 hours," he tells me, pretending to bang his head against the banister.

"Well then I guess that it's a good thing that I'm done with her hair, then isn't it?" I smile, letting the little girl loose from the bathroom. I smile at gale and reach up to kiss his scratchy cheek. "Will you quit worrying?"

"I just- this is the first time that I have seen Katniss since…" his phrase dies out. Although I know exactly what he's upset about; Prim. No matter how many times that I tell him it wasn't his fault, Gale will not let himself think that it was just an accident. He continues to blame himself about the whole accident.

"Gale, I have told you time and time again. What happened to Prim is not your fault-"

He cuts me off, "But it was _my_ bomb."

"But, it wasn't your call to launch them," I assure him, rubbing his arm. "Now come on, if we don't leave now, we'll be late."

Gale lets out a small snort, which I assume is supposed to be a form of his laugh. He leans forward and gives me a small kiss on my forehead. I cringe at the feel of his scruff on his chin on my face, but let him stay there for a small moment.

"Okay," he finally pulls away and looks my straight in the eye, "let's go meet baby Willow."

** X**

**20 years later**

My baby was graduating today. Ivory, my first child, is graduating from high school today. I don't know what to feel. I should be happy for her, she's had so many accomplishments. She got into the best college in all of Panem, she's graduating with academic honors, she is a beautiful young woman who I can't wait to see go off and do great things. But you can't blame me for being sad. I'm the woman that raised her. Even if she is not really mine, I will forever consider Ivory my little girl.

"Do you have your tissues?" Gale asked me. I slapped him in the chest and continued to wait for the school super attendant to call the names.

"Ivory Primrose Hawthorne," he says in a rough, raspy voice. I smile and begin clapping, getting my camera ready. My baby walks across the stage, shakes hands with the principals and teachers then receiving her diploma. She finds us in the crowd and waves. Suddenly a hand goes up and I see a symbol that I haven't seen in a while. Three fingers pressed together. I don't know why, but this feels right. Maybe it's because they know that Gale and I were on the Mockingjay team, I don't know. Though I may never know.

** X**

**A/N: So, that was kind of a rough ending, I know. But, I was kind of in a rush to get this done. I also know that the years may not match up, but I am not the best with numbers and dates, so bear with me. **

**Fun Fact: I have got some troubles at school! The only time that I ca n actually right is during school when I am not doing anything. **

**Fun Fact #2: I'm learning Spanish! Who knows maybe in a couple of years I can write a story in Spanish? **

**That last one was kind of random I know, but I am trying to lighten up the whole day. It's kind of sad, but I guess that I will have to get over it… **

**Anyway! I love you all and if you are reading this from Tumblr, welcome! I know that I don't really have a 'popular' blog so to say (mainly because I don't really blog about anything anyway.) Okay, officially the longest Author note that I have ever written. I love you all, as family because that would be weird, and happy holidays! **

**~Lauren**


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